And The World Watched
by IridescentEclipse
Summary: Fate is fickle sometimes, and in an odd twist it wasn't Valka that was taken on that fateful night, but an infant Hiccup. And now, Hiccup, raised among dragons as one of their own, finds himself embroiled in an ancient war, which he wants no part in.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello peeps,**

**This is another one of those Hiccup is captured and raised with the dragons fanfics. Everyone has probably read one, and I doubt many of you are going to be that impressed, but wait! I'm going to make some changes, the first being that Toothless is with the Red Death so while Hiccup grows up around dragons he hasn't met Toothless yet and I'm going to introduce some of my own characters and take creative liberties, because eh, why not.**

**Not that exciting, but I hope that y'all give me a chance.**

**On another note, this is slightly poetic for me, as something 5-ish years ago I started my career in Fanfiction writing my first fanfic in HTTYD, and I am coming back around full circle years later writing it again. Now you might be questioning why is this account has only 1 story. This was a spam account I created a while back to test out stories and follow others that I am using as a mean to have a clean slate. Kind of a dickish move, but I like the idea of freedom to do whatever I want.**

**I doubt this will get much feedback, or even follows, and I can't exactly say I'm infallible as I do have classes, so if not many people see this I'll upload periodically, if people seem to enjoy it then I'll upload a lot more often. Yes this is an asshole move, yes I know I'm an asshole for doing this, but I don't have limitless time and I probably won't find enjoyment out of writing a story if people don't seem to enjoy it.**

* * *

Life was a series of surprises. Stoick learned that the hard way. From birth he was expected to become the chief of his tribe. He stood strong, trained himself night and day, thinking that life was simple. He trained till his skin split and his bones threatened to snap, then trained some more for good measure. He trained even after his father had told him it was enough, and then found someone else to train him. And after all that training, when he finally felt he had mastered everything he was anointed the head of Berk.

He thought life as simple, they were vikings after all, they fought, ate, drank and fought some more, it was just way of life, and he had mastered all of that. Then he met Valka and his world was turned upside down. He never thought of marriage as anything more than just a convenient way to produce an heir, nothing more than a simple arrangement.

But when he met Valka, his wife, he quickly learned how odd the world sometimes is, how even in adulthood he has still much to learn. Valka was the fire to his sword, tempering him and showing him that there was more than violence, she was brilliant, gifted, and Stoick would not trade the world for her.

And then he had Hiccup, his Hiccup. Oh gods. He would do anything for him. At this point the world didn't matter, existence could be collapsing around him and all he cares about is that his family was safe. Chiefly duties seemed like nothing more than side notions then, supplementary to his family and part of an obligation he took as a youth.

And as he stood here, watching a dragon fly away with _his only son, _he realized that the world was not done with showing him surprises. His wife lied next to him, screaming out in mental agony as their child was stolen from them. He could barely move, the fires around him faded away as his vision narrowed on the dragon. The hole in his house was nothing compared to the hole in his heart.

Something shook him out of his stupor, maybe the clang of fighting, maybe the dragon fading away into the distance, or maybe just his mind finally comprehending what was happening.

He turned to Valka, he needed to be strong for her. He picked her up caressing her against his chest, their combined warmth felt like nothing compared to the ice gripping his body.

"It's going to be okay," he lied, "I'll be sure of that."

But as he held her close, he was focused on the horizon. He would find Hiccup, if he had to carve the entire world apart to find him, he would, he himself would kill all the dragons if it meant finding his son.

* * *

"You have brought a human," the Alpha said. It was both a statement and question.

"Yes my king," the dragon replied.

A moment between them a gentle hum from the Alpha's throat reverberated throughout the entire hive, dragon's passed by and stopped momentarily interested at what is happening, "Why?" the Alpha asked.

It was quite the question, and one that the dragon could not quite answer. Several answers came to mind, impulse, safety, fear, chance. But there was one that stood above all others, "look at him my king and tell me what you see."

"A human," the Alpha drawled.

"Yes, but beyond his skin, beyond the mortal foil that makes him human, what do you see," the king peered, despite being hundreds of wing lengths away, you could almost feel his presence pressing against his own. Peering into the human. He stared into his very being and saw a spark.

"Interesting," the king replied, his humming stopping for a second.

The dragon straightened, "You see what I mean! There is something about him! Something I have only heard stories about, I swear that there is-"

The king interrupted him, "You are correct, but even you only see the surface. Tell me," his voice lowered to a drawl, "what do you propose we do with this human."

"Raise him!" the dragon replied, "show him the truth that he would have been sheltered from had he grown up with the vikings."

"And then what," the king continued, "do you suppose that he will head off and find some sort of hidden destiny, somehow enabled by us to fight gods? You're ignoring the fact that he is human, and we dragons, raising him is going to be more than difficult, and likely to fail."

"But what's the alternative," the dragon continued, most would not even think about speaking back against their alpha, this is what made this dragon special, the Alpha found it endearing, if not frustrating, "we can't let this chance go to waste. If he were raised among the humans he would be no different than the rest of them," the dragon looked down towards the infant, "at least here he has a chance."

A deep sigh from the Alpha, dropping the surrounding temperature several degrees, "If he is as special as you say, would he have not found his way even among the vikings, his _people_," the words scathed the dragon, and his posture crumpled.

"But-"

"You are young, impulsive. And not only that, you view yourself as more intelligent than your kin," the Alpha started, as the dragon lowered with each word, "in some ways you are right, you have a spark. There is a reason why I tolerate your continued antics, but even then you must realize that you are as fallible as anyone else. You _cannot_ act on a whim because you _feel _like it is the best option."

A deep breath, "even at my age, I still make many mistakes. It's important that you view the consequences. By making an ally of this child you have just made an enemy somewhere in the world. I understand your intentions but there are innumerable factors at play that you can't account for."

The dragon raised his head from the ground, his voice hardly only a whisper, "I apologize my king," he lowered his head back down in a deep bow and looked towards the ground, "what do you propose."

The dragon knew that whatever came next was a commandment, one he must carry out whether he liked it or not.

The Alpha peered down, and gave a patronizing smile, "Since you believe in this child so hard, you will be the main hand that raises him. It is your duty now to teach him, train him, and need be punish him. How he develops will be a reflection of yourself."

A harsh breath, "Yes. My king."

The Alpha looked down at the now young burdened dragon, a warmth in his eyes that was not there a second ago, "I do believe in your capacity to carry out this task, and it is not one you need to carry on your own. I will provide assistance as needed, and I'm sure you will find kin happy to provide assistance."

The dragon looked up confusion etched onto his rather angular face, the Alpha continued, "did you learn of his name."

A curt nod, "Yes my king. I, uh, heard it as I took the child."

"What's the name?"

"Hiccup."

A pause, as the Alpha just looked down at the dragon. Then a chortle, vibrating the entire cavern around them, evolving into a guffaw. Warmth entered his voice, "By the gods humans have awful naming customs. But I wish you luck in raising this Hiccup."

* * *

"Hey Kim, we're stoppin' on an island for a bit to gather ourselves," the voice rang from outside the wooden door. Kim tapped a quill on ink well and replied, "where are we heading?"

Some scrabbling outside the door, "Some abandoned island for all I know," even though she couldn't hear him, she knew that her crewmate was shrugging, "doesn' even have a name," he paused for a second, "I'd say it'd be a good time to head out, grab some air."

Kim looked down at the paper sitting in front of her, a report back to the university, she had spent nights working on this, and even longer staring at if as if it would magically complete itself. Ideally she should finish the letter as soon as possible, as a university student she was bound to finish this paper, but… "Alright," Kim said, "just tell me when we land."

"Gotcha'."

Kim stood up and put the ink quill away, putting the paper onto the side of the desk to dry.

It was weird. To Kim heading to a prestigious foreign university was supposed to be the end of things. She would study there, learn secrets most wouldn't even have the chance to even consider, maybe even get rich while at it. But much to her dismay, there were no pearly gates of knowledge, no golden books imparting forbidden information, no wizened professors passing down their knowledge onto pupils. Just more of the same.

She had spent hard enough even being considered as a student, and most of the time she was just overlooked for who she was. A foreign female. Even then, it was more of the same, even within the university she felt as if she was nothing more than an odd footnote, buried within texts within texts.

It was horrible, arguably even worse than not being in the university. She felt _this _close to knowledge, yet felt further away than ever.

So she applied for a job as a frontiersman… frontierswoman, exploring foreign lands and cataloguing them. To be honest she thinks most people in the university were just happy to have an excuse for her to leave, and she took it. She just wanted out, she wanted to feel useful.

And it didn't take long for her to fall in love with traveling.

So she booked passage on a viking merchant ship, paid them in advance and when asked where she wanted to go just said, "Eh, surprise me."

At least the vikings were a bit more friendly, they respected her- at least from a 7 foot pole. She genuinely wondered if they believed she could curse them. Most of them couldn't exactly count past 10 and thought that writing was a way to curse their luck. Amusingly stupid.

She didn't even lock the door, the crew was too terrified of what concoctions she was cooking within her cabin.

The ship rumbled and stopped, her crewmate, Ander, spoke up, "We've landed."

"I'll be right out!" she yelled standing up from her chair.

She went over to the cupboard, opening it up and grabbing a leaf of paper and a charcoal pencil, staching it away and heading out the door.

Ander looked startled at her sudden appearance, "Heya Kim," he started, "I was thinkin'... uh, if you wanna eat dinner with the crew later. Can't be healthy sittin' in there all day."

Kim curtly smiled, "I would love to, but I need to finish a paper I'm sending back to the university. Maybe another time."

Ander's face twitched downwards but he gave a forced smile, "Oh yeah… of course'. You probably need to get that done…" he trailed off rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uh huh," Kim hummed to herself walking over to the edge of the ship. There was a crowd of vikings standing at the edge of the boat, some of them shuffling into a small dinghy of a ship that was heading towards the shore.

"Alright," Kim shouted, "I'm coming through… Excuse me…. Thank you… Good to see you again...Have a nice day," the crowd grumbled and parted letting her through and onto the dinghy, having gotten used to her antics.

Eventually they reached the forested atoll, and each person got out of the boat. Some heading inwards to the trees to search for some fruit, some lying on the sand and basking in the sun, some grabbing some wooden clubs and preparing to spar, and some stripping down naked and running into the ocean.

She smiled at the crew's actions and walked in the opposite direction to everyone else, just heading wherever. Eventually the trees obscured the ship and the vikings as she walked towards the forest, taking a seat on a small patch of grass.

She glanced around...

_There_

A view of the ocean, an island in the distance, rolling clouds, couple of waves, all framed within an opening within the trees. She pulled out the paper and charcoal, putting her mind to rest as she started drawing the scene in front of her.

Time passed as she subconsciously drew her view. Half way through she glanced down at the paper, frowning at it. It wasn't perfect, it has the problem of being too boring, nothing interesting about it. It would make an interesting picture in a textbook, but that was about it.

She looked up, holding charcoal pencil in hand.

And screamed.

There was a boy in front of her, he couldn't have been older than 15. He stared at her with lime green eyes slightly obscured by brown hair. He was crouched low and his freckled face tilted to the side, like how an inquisitive bird would do.

"Oh hello there!" Kim said, trying to catch her breath, holding her arms close to her chest instinctively, "sorry I didn't see you there."

The kid cocked his head to the other side… _What was he wearing_? It looked as if he was covered in scales, but it wasn't quite like that. Like his clothing was covered in scales.

"I'm sorry if I bothered you," Kim continued unsure if he even understood here. Ander just had to pick the single random island inhabited by locals.

The kid held himself low as if he was about to pounce, it unnerved Kim. He opened his mouth, "you, viking?" he asked pointing a finger at her.

"Oh," she rambled realizing that he does speak Norse, albeit with a heavy slow accent, as if he was speaking from the back of his throat, "oh me? No, sorry I'm not a viking, I'm just traveling with some."

He blinked and relaxed his posture, replacing his rather aggressive form with a more curious one.

He didn't do anything so Kim continued, "Sorry for intruding, I was just enjoying the scenery."

He blinked again, and asked "you do what?"

She smiled, and repeated "I was just walking around the island, enjoying the views," he frowned seemingly unsatisfied with her answer, she followed his eyes and realized it was resting on the paper and pencil, "oh this!"

She held up the paper showing it to the kid, "I was just drawing the view."

He crawled closer and held out a hand, as if he could reach through the image and into another world. Kim pulled it back, "Uh be careful," she said, "the paper's fragile, I don't want you to tear it."

He blinked, "fra-jeye-le?" he pantomimed.

"Uh… weak," Kim corrected.

He nodded, "you let I hold?" he asked.

Her first instinct was to say no. But on second thought she relented, realizing that this drawing was nothing special, and she had enough drawings of scenery back in her cabin to drown an ogre. Plus this kid was just so darn cute.

She handed the paper to him. He gingerly held it within his fingers, holding it close to his eyes and he tilted the paper slowly as he traced over the image with his finger. "It very good!" he exclaimed seconds later.

"Thank you," Ava said giving a small nod.

He lowered the paper, "you, uh, buy-sell person?"

It took her a second to realize what he was trying to say, "oh! Do you mean a trader?"

He nodded vigorously.

She shook her head, "not exactly? Why? Do you want to buy the paper?"

He shook her head and replied, "not paper! Buy black finger!"

She paused, "black finger?"

He pointed at her hand, and she held it up. Oh! She realized, he meant the pencil, not some horribly frostbitten finger, "You want to buy the pencil?"

"Yes! I want to buy pen-sihl," he repeated.

Not that she wasn't going to give it to him, but she was curious, "why?"

"Pen-sihl hard make," he said, "I like drawing, I have not very pen-sihl. I buy pen-sihl from you, I happy, you happy."

She contemplated just giving him the pencil, "what would you use to buy the pencil."

He beamed as he reached into a pocket she didn't realize was in his scaly clothing, pulling out a strange black rock. He held it out and she picked it up pulling to close to her eyes, "is this... obsidian?"

He frowned, "ob-sih…," he frowned unable to reproduce what she just said, "Uh. It fire rock!" he said seemingly proud with his explanation.

Kim peered closely at the rock. It looked damn like obsidian, the reflection, the odd wavy contours. To most people obsidian was nothing but a luxury that only the rich could afford. Hell if she haggled well enough she could sell this and buy hundreds of pencils.

She cleared her throat, "you want to buy the pencil, with the, uh, fire rock?" she said holding up the obsidian and pointing it.

He nodded.

She smiled, "sure," she replied, handing him the pencil, which he gingerly held. He pulled it up to his nose and inhaled deeply, seemingly enjoying the scent. Kim couldn't help but be amused, "Oh and uh you can take the paper as well."

He looked up towards her and beamed, pocketing the pencil and paper into a similar pocket to the one where the obsidian came from.

"You very nice person!" he joyfully exclaimed, "my name Hiccup. Your name what?"

She blinked. And blinked again, "your name is _Hiccup_," she stressed.

"Yes!"

Kim smiled in amusement, "That's, uh, a very good name. Very… masculine," she forced herself to not laugh, "you can call me Kim."

"Kihm," he drawled letting it slowly roll of his tongue, "it… weird name. I not hear before."

"I'm uh, not from around here."

He smiled, "you outsider?"

"Yeah."

He smiled, "I outsider too! I, uh, not parent child, I outsider child."

"You're adopted?"

He nodded.

She frowned, "are your parents here?"

He paused for a second then beamed seemingly realizing something, "I show you father! Father very nice. You like father."

"Wait-"

Before she could finish he stood up, lifted his head towards the sky and let out an unearthly scream. It surprised the living hell out of Kim, having not expecting the harsh guttural shriek from this unassuming kid.

She debated turning tail and running. She was okay around this kid, because he was a kid. She didn't want to get into any trouble with locals, especially if they decided that she had somehow done something wrong.

She did not want to learn the cannibal cookbook.

Before she could decide a shadow passed overhead.

Kim looked up and nearly passed out, letting out the loudest scream she had probably ever done. There was a dragon. A real life, motherfucking breathing dragon. Up until now she had only heard stories from the vikings about dragon raids, and how they were merciless beings that only existed to torment humans.

And there was a large 4 winged dragon right above them.

She rose to her feet and backed up, hoping that she could hide in the trees from the dragon. The kid, _Hiccup_, she reminded herself, was just standing there, however.

She bent down and motioned him over, "what are you doing? Get over here, hide!"

He either didn't hear what she said or didn't understand it. The dragon landed landed in front of Hiccup and Kim whispered a prayer to every god she could think of, hoping that for some god-forsaken miracle she could escape this situation.

Hiccup, however, turned towards the dragon and growled something. Instead of tearing the kids to pieces, however, the dragon pulled him close with its wing and nuzzled him. Hiccup growled something else at the dragon and pointed towards her.

Then it clicked within Kim's mind.

His odd back-of-the-throat accent. His clothes covered in dragon scales. Random obsidian he just had on himself. Hiccup wasn't joking when he said he was an orphan. He was a human being raised by a dragon.

The dragon turned towards Kim, and she wondered how far she would make it before being incinerated.

Hiccup spoke up, "this I father!" he said proudly.

It took several deep breaths before Kim was able to find your voice, "your father's… a dragon?" she asked whispering out the last part.

The dragon and Hiccup nodded at the same time, "And it… he can understand me."

They both nodded again.

Kim swallowed the lump in her throat, "It's, uh, good to meet you."

The dragon rolled its… his eyes in a surprisingly human manner as Hiccup beamed, "so, uh," Kim hesitated, wondering how close she is to being lunch, "what's his name?"

Hiccup tilted his head, "dragon not have name!"

"Oh, cool."

Hiccup opened his mouth to say something, but before words left, the dragon perked up for a second, and hissed something towards Hiccup. Hiccup frowned and turned towards Kim, "bad viking men come here," he said.

"So, you're uh leaving."

He nodded.

Kim mentally breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that she may just actually get out of this situation. Hiccup clambered onto the dragon's back, holding onto part of the wing with one hand and some of the spikes along its back with the other.

The dragoned lowered to the ground preparing to take off and Hiccup shouted, "thank you nice buy-sell Kim lady! I want see you again!"

Kim blinked, "Uh, your welcome."

And like that, as quickly as the dragon had landed the dragon took off and was flying off into the horizon. Kim calmed herself debating if somehow she had died and was in some sort of odd purgatory.

"Kim! Kim!" Ander rounded a tree and saw her, "by the gods!" he breathed a sigh of relief, "we saw a dragon fly overhead, then heard ya' scream. Thought ya' were done for."

Kim glanced at him and looked at the dragon, already barely a spot on the horizon, "sorry," she replied, her mind elsewhere, "I, uh," she paused remembering how happy Hiccup seemed to introduce her to his adopted father, "I saw it fly overhead and got scared."

"Well you gotta be careful from now on," Ander said, "from now on we're only heading into dragon infested territory. I've heard the next stop has a very bad dragon problem."

"Where's that."

"Some odd island in the middle of nowhere called Berk."

* * *

**So what do y'all think. This was actually a lot of fun to write, but I'm afraid that it isn't all that interesting to read. So leave some advice, if it was enjoyable tell me, if not, say why. If it wasn't all that interesting the next couple of chapters should pick up quickly.**

**Some just some info I was thinking about the story that y'all should know. The combating between the Red Death and Berk is still going to be the main focus of the story, although I might throw in some additional sub-plots or ideas within there. **

**I'm debating of the idea of having Hiccup somehow turn into a NightFury. If so, it might happen soon. So to those who normally skip over the author's note, ATTENTION HERE. Would y'all be interested in seeing Hiccup gain some sort of dragon form? Or is that trope overused?**

**Anyways, besides that I'll see y'all for the next chapter. Would love to see some criticism either through reviews or PM's.**

**Next up, Berk, Dragons and Hiccup doing his thing.**

**IridescentEclipse out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow… so I expected maybe to get about 5 follows, maybe a guest review saying "it good", but y'all really blew that expectation out of the park. First off, thanks for everyone who gave a review, as much as it may seem that you aren't saying anything it does help in allowing me to see what y'all think is interesting. **

**To be honest a lot of this story I don't have planned, besides a few main points, so if y'all want to see something, please let me know and I'll see about letting it in.**

**In the meantime, thanks to Lucas Godzilla, CajunBear73, bahall1964, AirCaptainBiggles, and a guest for the reviews!**

* * *

Hiccup sat up, letting the wind flow through his hair, his hair flew everywhere, into his eyes, and pulled at his head. The wind battered his skin, causing it to go red and wore away at his face. His legs were sore from sitting for so long. It was painfully uncomfortable, yet Hiccup enjoyed every second of it.

"I thought I told you not to interact with humans," Hiccup's father grumbled from underneath him. Hiccup's father had quickly found out over the years that Hiccup, as admirable as his quirks were, would hardly ever listen.

"She wasn't a viking though," Hiccup rambled, "she was actually surprisingly nice. No frothing at the mouth, no cursing my ancestors, no accusing of being a bastard dragon spawn of a 'Loki', I enjoyed the change once for my life."

"And what if she wasn't nice?"

"Then I would've been fine," Hiccup drawled resting himself on a nook on his father's back, "I'm not just some fishbone, I can handle myself."

"Mm Hm," his father harrumphed, obviously not believing him, "why did you even want to talk with her in the first place."

"She was drawing, and I got curious."

"You risked your life, because she was _drawing_?"

"Well, yeah," Hiccup sat up, rolling his eyes, "obviously her artistic skills put me in grave danger."

"Are you never careful?"

"I am," Hiccup said, "I just don't know what you want from me."

An exasperated gasp, "To be careful for once in your life! I want you to think ahead for a second, and not put yourself in these deadly situations," as harsh as it was, Hiccup knew that there was love behind it.

"Hmm," Hiccup said holding the pencil he got in his hand and angling it against the sun, "sounds boring, not gonna lie."

Hiccup's father shook his head, sometimes he could see the viking in Hiccup, that stubbornness that would rival a Flame-skin, "What interests you so much about them anyways?"

Hiccup shrugged, "beyond that fact that I am one?"

A terse nod.

"I dunno, they're interesting. On one side they are bloodthirsty savages who don't know their right hand from their left, on the other side," he touched the pencil in his pocket, "they seem to always surprise me," he blinked a few times trying to gain hold of his thoughts, "Honestly, though, humans are just weird."

Hiccup's father turned around and gave him a sardonic gaze, the irony of what Hiccup just said not lost upon him.

Hiccup's father shook his head in mock disbelief as they arrived back at the nest, "We're back."

Hiccup stood up on his father's back, waited until they were over one of the alcrops and jumped off. For a brief moment Hiccup was weightless as he flew through the air, landing on the ground with a roll, recovering on a crouching position, with his hands stabilizing himself on the ground, as he watched his father fly overhead.

His father was probably going to converse with the King, say once again how Hiccup was coming along nicely despite his propensity to not listen. Blah, blah, blah. He's heard it all before.

In fact his father was probably grumbling to himself right now about Hiccup's lack of personal safety, and will probably lecture Hiccup tonight about how dangerous it is to fall great distances.

It was weird, on one side his father wanted to treat him like his kin, let him be his own, but he had no fire, no wings. His scales, or lack thereof, where pitifully weak. And so he was relegated to being relegated to the side like sick prey.

So Hiccup was contempt with sitting on the edge of the alcove on the cliff edge, watching the horizon, waiting for his kin to finish their duty.

There was a dot on the horizon.

Hiccup just noticed it, probably a stray cloud, or maybe a dragon returning from a scouting trip. A moment passed, it got closer, the dot getting larger, so probably a dragon.

There was something odd about it though, dragon's often prided themselves on their flying ability, yet this one was odd, dipping low and flying back up, bobbing a bit then repeating. Either this was someone being incredibly lazy about returning, trying to show off, or…

He could see him now, one of his kin, a cyan Spike-tail. It was bleeding, a lot. Hiccup vaguely recognized her, a Spike-tail that had just come of age and would often try to take up as many duties as possible to please the King. One of its wings was nearly torn off and was dripping blood into the sea, it was coming towards the cliff edge Hiccup was sitting on.

It landed, falling to the ground under its own weight, there were claw marks everywhere, criss crossing her entire body like some sort of sick caricature, "what happened?" Hiccup whispered.

She turned to look at him eyes awash with fear and pain, "I-I was attacked."

"By who?"

She shivered, pulling herself up to her feat, heading towards the inside of the nest, "who attacked you?" Hiccup asked again.

"I have to tell the King," she replied barely noticing Hiccup's existence.

Hiccup walked in front of her, "why, who attacked you, what's so important."

"No, no, no" the Spike-tail whispered to herself, walking around Hiccup, blood dripping on him.

"What's going on!" Hiccup growled, "who hurt you!"

She blinked and stared at him, seemingly finally realizing he's there, "the Red Queen-" she drew a heavy breath, "she's expanding, she's going to attack. She's declaring war."

* * *

The boat Kim rode on was moored at Berk, as Kim stood on the dock, watching the people go about doing their own thing. Another island, another batch of mysteries to uncover. Her mind drifted back to the previous island and the mysterious dragon-boy she met. Maybe one big mystery to uncover.

Ander walked up beside her, "Welcome to Berk," he said matter-of-factly, gesturing towards the buildings, "what do you think?"

She paused gazing over the landscape, "never been on an actual viking island before," she paused again, "it's very interesting to say the least."

She gazed yet again, it was an entire society dedicated to fighting dragons. It would be a lot more interesting if it wasn't so morbid. The statues out at sea warding off predators, the houses, made to deflect projectiles, each one being recently built, even the catapults raised on towers used to help them fight back.

"How long are we staying here?" Kim asked turning to Asher.

He rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully, "Uh, guessin' a couple of days. Thor knows, think the captain' is from here. He might wanna take a couple of days to meet some friends. So, uh, yeah probably couple of days, or more."

"Uh huh," Kim nodded, "well, my intrepid tour guide, if we're going to be here for the next days, why don't you show me around. There has to be something interesting here I can learn about."

"Well, uh," he stammered, "I heard they have good mead here, and I know you like to collect stories, and I heard they have an experienced blacksmith with plenty of stories to tell."

Kim looked at the sky, it appeared to be mid-afternoon, "take me to the blacksmith," she said, "then afterwards we can get a drink or something."

* * *

"Why are we here?" a Buzz-wing asked Hiccup.

"Because this is where the injured spik-tail was attacked, and I want to see what's going on here."

"But won't your father be angry?" the buzz-wing asked, glancing around at the surroundings as if it was going to lunge out at them.

"Ah, he's angry at everything I do," Hiccup shifted on the mountaintop, watching the humans in the village down below do their own thing, he put on a mocking voice, "why can't you be more like your kin Hiccup. I raised you to be safe, and you're nothing more than a clueless hatchling going wherever you want.."

The dragon recoiled as if Hiccup had struck him, "do you really dislike your father that much?"

Hiccup let out a sigh, "of course not. We just don't agree on everything, I just want to explore and find new things, and he'd rather have me sit in the nest forever as safe as possible."

The dragon timidly shook his head side to side digesting what Hiccup just said, "I still don't understand why we are here, however."

"Because," Hiccup started turning to face the timid buzz-wing, "the spike-tail said she was attacked by the Red Queen. It's no secret that the Red Queen and these humans have been at war forever. If something happened here, it might explain why she so suddenly decided to attack us."

"Is that it?"

"And I just want to get out," Hiccup firmly responded.

The dragon let out an exasperated groan and hid his head between his paws as if they would be teleported back to the hive, "Why did I agree to take you here?" he mulled to himself. Hiccup gave him a small glance, patted him on the side and went back to watching the humans.

A couple of those wooden houses the humans like to use were coming and going, people moving about the center of their hive. Nothing all that interesting, in fact Hiccup dully thought that you couldn't even tell that these people were prepared to wage genocidal war against his kin.

Hiccup was starting to think he made the wrong choice by coming here.

"I'll tell you what,"" Hiccup started turning to his hatchmate, "if nothing happens by nightfall we can head back."

The dragon looked up with both joy and fear, "and what do we tell your father?"

Hiccup shrugged, "we got bored and went out flying for a bit, I dunno."

"Why can't we leave earlier?" the dragon groaned.

Hiccup gave a playful smile, "because then you'd have to explain how you left me on Berk."

"Why am I friends with you?"

"You know you love me."

* * *

"Can't say I've seen you before lass," the man in front of Kim said, hammering away at a bent sword while turning to glance at her and giving her a lopsided smile.

"Came in on a shipping boat," Kim replied, leaning her arms onto the windowsill into the forge, "I heard that you got some good stories to tell."

Kim glanced over the man, and agreed that he had some hell of a story to tell. A missing arm and leg, no one goes through that accidentally. Part of him said grizzled warrior, as he looks strong enough to carry an entire ship on his two arms… or what is left of it. At the same time his face betrays that idea and gives off the impression of a kindly old man who will take you in and feed you.

"Would love to chat," the man started, emphasizing the point with a shake of his head, "but chief won't like seeing me off duty."

Kim gave a smile, "I'm from an eastern university. If he comes I'll just give some spiel about how this is for the betterment of communal knowledge. Or some bullshit like that."

The man stopped hammering away at the sword, set it down next to the anvil and turned towards her, "If you don't mind me askin'," he started, "what'chu doing all the way out here then?"

"Got tired of the bureaucratic hell that is the university," she gave a half-shrug, "got out of there and am now traveling around the world."

"I'd be careful around here then. Berk here suffers from dragon raids, not that safe for an outsider, no offence of course."

She shrugged, "none taken," she paused and brushed her fingers against the notebook, "but tell me about these dragons."

He stepped over and looked at her eyes, "this is what you wanted to ask about in the first place, isn't it lass?"

She gave a guilty smile.

He returned it with a happy one, "well I take it you ain't gonna leave me any time soon, so what can ol' Gobber tell you about then?"

She leaned into the window facing the aptly named 'Gobber', she opened her mouth to ask a question but paused, "why do dragons attack Berk?"

Gobber gave an appreciative whistle, "ain't that the big question. No one here knows, all we know is that we gotta fight back and defend our home."

She thought back to Hiccup and his adopted father.

"Do all dragons you meet attack you then?"

He tilted his head, "Can't say I've met a friendly dragon in my lifetime," he held up his hand, "unless they were tryin' to save me from my own hand."

Kim wasn't sure if laughing at the joke would be rude, so she just nodded in response, "well then, how intelligent would you say they are?"

"From what I know, it varies from dragon to dragon," he took in a breath, "but that ain't my specialty. There's a kid who helps me at the forge, Fishlegs, he almost knows dragons as well as I know the forge. If you want answers, I'd say ask him. I can fetch him for you."

"That'd work. Thanks," he turned away but before he finished she said, "but if you will. One more question."

He turns back around, "what's on your mind?'

She took in a deep breath, "Has there ever been any stories of humans living among dragons?"

He gave a half-grin, "we'll I've heard of stories of humans living inside of dragons," he punctuated his gloomy joke with a flick of his amputated hand, "but I can't say I've heard of humans living _with_ dragons."

Kim paused, "thanks," she said. This either meant that Hiccup was the odd one out, or somehow Berk is getting an extremely limited view on dragons, "so where can I find this Fishlegs?"

"Don't worry lass, just wait here," he hobbled to the back of the forge, and although slightly muffled she could hear Gobber yell, "Fishlegs, get your ass over here!"

She swore she heard a surprised 'eep' followed by a high-pitched, "coming!" before a chubby kid rounded the corner and came to the front of the shop.

Fishlegs stopped in front of Kim, "what do you need ma'am. Sword, hammer, maybe a net?"

Gobber hobbled back to the front of the forge, "listen up you dolt! She has a couple of questions about dragons she was fixin' to ask you."

Kim swore she could see his eyes light up, "Oh what do you want to know! There's so much I can tell you, like there's this dragon that can kill you by screaming-"

"Fishlegs," Gobber said trying to get his attention.

"-or there's this other one that that can shoot you with lightning-"

"Fishlegs!" Gobber repeated this time a bit louder.

"-oh! There's even this one called a 'NightFury' which no one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale!-"

"FISHLEGS!" Gobber yelled startling the poor child, "let the lass ask her question."

"Oh sorry," he timidly replied shrinking down, "what question did you have?"

She gave an amused smile at her antics, "this is kinda a vague question, but how smart are dragons?"

"Are you asking about a specific species or-"

"Tell me about the smartest one you know of," she interrupted with a wave of her hand.

"That would be the Deadly Nadder with an intelligence rating of 8," Fishlegs said matter-of-factly, "they tend to express their intelligence in pack mentality, seemingly caring for each other and protecting each other, especially in raids."

"Is that the limit to their intelligence?"

He gave a small nod, "well, yeah. Most dragons don't show much of a response to anything besides fighting and food."

Kim frowned, "Would you say there are sentient dragons then."

Fishlegs frowned in tandem, "there might be one out there," he shook his head, "but at least here we don't got any."

Kim lightly shook her head, maybe the next village would have more information on the feral dragon boy she met, "well then, tell me about Berk."

Fishlegs grew the same smile he had when she had asked about dragons, "what do you want to know. Fishlegs at your service," he punctuated it with a small, albeit improper bow.

"Tell me about yourself, what do you do?"

"Me?"

"No, the other you."

Fishlegs gave a meek smile, "I'm too young to do too much right now. I mostly just help around the forge with Gobber and help put out fires during dragon raids."

"Do all kids your age do this?"

He shook his head, "most of the people my age are preparing for dragon training in a couple of weeks. If you ask me, I can't wait."

Kim opened her mouth to ask another question but a voice interrupted her, "Hey Fishlegs what's up."

Kim turned to look at the newcomer. He had brown hair and blue eyes. He looked to be a bit younger than Fishlegs, but at the same time seemed to be in far better shape, avoiding the classic Viking stocky build in favor or a more lean taller body type.

Fishlegs turned, smiled and said, "Oh hey Harald, just talking about Berk."

"Hopefully you're not giving away all our secrets, right?"

Fishlegs flushed, "of course I wouldn't."

"Relax, I'm just teasing you," he turned and greeted Kim, "name's Harald, nice to meet you."

Kim gave a playful smile back, "good to meet you. I'd be careful around this Fishlegs however, he's been telling me all your secrets, just one more slip of the mouth and next thing you'd know the chief will be on your ass."

Fishlegs blushed and Harald let out a warm laugh, "I don't think that I have to worry that much," Harald grinned, "dad's always busy with chiefly duties anyways."

* * *

"It's nighttime, let's go," the Buzz-wing groaned from next to Hiccup.

Hiccup blinked a couple of times, he was falling asleep. He focused his eyes on what was left of the sun, it crawled down into the earth, breathing a dim fire into the edge of the world. Maybe nothing was happening, "fine," Hiccup conceded, "let me just stretch my legs before I strain them on the flight back."

He stood up and walked over to the edge of the cliff, facing down onto hive. It was a lot more quaint, most people in their little wooden nests by now, and fires being lifted into the sky as a warning against any potential raids.

Part of him wanted to wait through the night, watch these humans do their thing. Part of him just realized that there was nothing left here but odd mental trinkets.

"Hiccup," the buzz-wing said from the other side of the alcove.

"I know, I know," Hiccup said with a wave of his hand, "we can go now."

"No, Hiccup, look!" the buzz-wing nearly shouted.

Hiccup turned towards the buzz-wing, his eyes wide and looking at the horizon, body violently shaking and wings held tight against his body. Hiccup followed his eyes, without the eyes of a dragon he was missing something, he squinted and looked closer, it was just black.

Just black…

It was like the stars had been doused in the horizon, and only on that bit of the horizon. It looked like the stars wrapped their wings around the edge of the world. Something was coming, something in the way of the stars, "a raid," Hiccup whispered to himself.

And like a fire that has been ignited suddenly the nest of Berk was awake with fury. People shouting, wooden contraptions being lifted into the air, people running to and from their dens.

"Let's go," Hiccup said, turning to his hatchmate.

The raid had started, Hiccup could hear his kin rain down fire upon Berk, with the viking screaming in response. Hiccup turned to hop onto his friend's back, stopping as he heard a faint whistling growing louder.

Instinctively Hiccup and his companion dropped to the ground, as the whistle grew to a near unbearable level, Hiccup dared to look up in time to see one of the viking towers being obliterated by a purple blast. It lit up the surrounding area like a new sun, and his eyes hurt just from looking at it.

A wave of heat flowed over Hiccup and he leaned up, just in time for a black mass to travel right above his head. He had only heard stories of the abyssal dragon the Red Queen uses, he swore he locked eyes with it as it passed overhead.

One of the human wooden towers turned to where the void traveled and in a large click released a flaming rock… Traveling right to the alcove where Hiccup was hiding.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Hiccup screamed as the it grew closer.

His heart hammered in his chest, fingers grew clammy, he knew his hatchmate was yelling at him to move, but he could barely hear it over the thunder in his ears.

His mind returned at the last second as his hatchmate and Hiccup dove together, away from the flaming rock. There was a thunderous crack, and suddenly the ground was no longer there.

* * *

Kim debated the idea of leaving, heading back to her home and never traveling to where dragons were.

Like some ethereal switch had been flipped, the relative calm of Berk was replaced with the chaos of a raid. Her perception of being an outsider was flipped, instead of being excited to meet new people and learn about the culture, suddenly she was lost within a sea of people with no idea what to do.

Fishlegs and Harald had muttered some apology about how he had to leave and was gone before Kim could even reply.

Kim had decided to hide next to the wall of a house, hoping that no dragon would see her and decide she looked especially tasty.

It was one thing to hear of dragon raids, another to be in one.

The cacophony of noises, screaming, and fire. The wretched scent of blood and molten flesh in the air, enough fire to make Kim want to live on the ocean for the rest of her life, the sky alive with dragons. Part of her was amazed at what was happening, part of her was horrified.

She took a deep breath and peered out from behind the wall, a two headed dragon was flying above Berk, one head breathing a deep green gas, it was making a strafing run… and coming in her direction.

It was coming right towards her!

Not wanting to see what affects the green gas had she dove to the side, as the dragon flew above her hiding place, filling the surrounding area with a thick ooze. She heard a faint click and suddenly the gas was replaced with fire.

Her skin burned, and she could fear a now frustrating lack of eyebrows. But she was alive.

The house she was hiding behind was alight, a flaming pyre reaching almost as high as the elevated catapults the vikings liked to use.

That was a no go.

Her hands were red to the touch and skin was peeling away, she couldn't afford to take a chance again. She peered up focusing through the pain, and got up to her feet.

A female Berkian ran past her, glancing at her momentarily then stopping, axe dropped to the ground, "what are ya' doin'. Get to the Great Hall!"

And as soon as she stopped she was heading back to the fight. Kim looked up, on top of the mound little over a couple hundred feet away was what Fishlegs had told her was the Great Hall. She mentally scolded herself for avoiding the logic of staying in the one place in Berk not made of wood.

She ducked her way through people, most of the barely even sparing a glance as they focused on the attacking dragons.

Occasionally she would make a slight detour to avoid a stray flame, or a dragon making a strafing run, eventually finding herself at the Great Hall after what felt like way too long.

There was a thunderous clap and she looked up to see the mountain above the Great Hall crumble down. Rocks the size of her fist rained down as she took cover next to the door. It was closed. Of course it was closed.

The rocks rained down with a fury and Kim knew if she strayed from the small shelter provided by the door she stood a chance of losing a limb. There was a loud thump as the rocks continued raining down, as Kim saw what Fishlegs described as a 'Gronkle' landed right in front of her.

She let out a scream as she backed up onto the door, the Gronkle shook itself and faced her… wait there was something on it…

"Hiccup?" Kim asked, not quite believing herself. Her mind struggled to comprehend what was going on, is he a part of this raid? Does he hate humans? Is he being forced to participate and tell the secrets to beating them?

The dragon raised human turned and looked at her with wide eyes, seemingly just as confused as she was, "Kim-human?" he asked in response.

The moment didn't last long, however, as a scream tore through the midst. A teenage girl ran from the stairwell, net in hand and tossed it at the Gronkle. Hiccup dived to the side, landing on all 4's, as the Gronkle was caught in the net.

He watched in wide eyes as the Gronkle writhed in the rope. Fortunately the teenager had missed his presence, but Kim watched as he bristled from his spot in the shadows.

Hiccup breathed in, and moved to help the Gronkle. Kim ran over and pushed him back, "don't," she hissed, "they'll kill you."

He looked at her with wide eyes, emotions flowing through too fast for her to notice, "you need to get out of here," Kim whispered.

Hiccup looked at Kim and then at his Gronkle friend, and then at an encroaching group of Vikings, one of them yelled, "looks like we got a new dragon' for the kill ring boys!"

Hiccup held his eyes shut, warbled something to the Gronkle and took off running, disappearing into the night.

* * *

**I borrowed a lot of the naming conventions from RiftRaft's **_**I Hear Him Scream**_ **because it sounds good, and I'm too lazy to think of anything more complicated.**

**There was supposed to be more in this chapter, but I was having trouble writing it, so I just opted to post what I had completed and keep what I had planned for the next chapter. So next chapter will have Hiccup meeting Toothless and more Berkian action.**

**I'm still debating having Hiccup turn into a dragon, so until then keep telling me y'all's thoughts. **

**What did y'all think of this chapter? I'm happy with how it came out, but I feel like I could have improved upon some ideas. I'm worried that most of this chapter is rather uninteresting so what did y'all think?**

**Laters!**


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